All of Us -- Chapter 37

Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Alec, etc.), and everything else that has to do with the show belong to their respective owners, not to me. No money is being made off of this fic. I only own the original characters (Becky/X6-405, etc.).

“Do you want to go to sleep now?” Brin asked Anthony as she finished changing his diaper later that evening. “Do you? Does Mommy’s little angel want to go to sleep?” She tickled him and grinned when Anthony giggled. Brin dressed her son for bed, picked him up, carried him over to the crib, set him down in it, and gave him a kiss on his forehead. “Sweet dreams, honey.”

“Just in time,” Alec said from behind her.

“Yeah,” Brin agreed. “How did your workout go in the gym?”

“It was just what I needed after sitting in that chair in the control room for four fu—stupid hours,” Alec said. He walked up to the crib and leaned down and kissed Anthony on his forehead. “Get a good night’s sleep, big guy. Daddy loves you.”

Brin smiled and she and Alec left Anthony’s bedroom and went into their own and they sat next to each other on Brin’s bed. “He’s growing up so quickly. Can you believe that he’ll be five months old tomorrow?”

“I can’t,” Alec admitted. “It seems like yesterday that I went over your old apartment after work the day before he was born and I sat down next to you on the couch to watch that movie with you and I’d barely asked what movie it was that we were watching when your water broke.”

“Followed by sixteen hours of fun,” Brin said dryly. “That was some experience. But it was so absolutely worth it when I heard him crying and when Maggie said that it was a boy…”

“Yeah,” Alec agreed softly. “When Maggie handed him to us, it was so incredible…” They sat quietly together for a few moments. “He’ll be walking soon. I wonder when he’ll start to walk.”

“That’s a good question,” Brin said. “I know that we started to walk really early, but they kind of pushed us to do it. He’s already a speed demon on four legs, so I’m guessing he’ll be taking his first steps within the next month. I think I read somewhere that ordinary babies start walking somewhere close to a year, sometimes as early as eight or nine months.”

“This is my son,” Alec said proudly. “He’ll be taking his first steps by this time a week from now, never mind this time a month from now.”

“I’ll ignore that on the condition that his first words aren’t ‘strip club,’” Brin teased.

“Nope. It’ll be ‘Daddy,’” Alec said.

“No way. He’s gonna say ‘Mommy’ before he says ‘Daddy,’” Brin insisted.

“You wish,” Alec said.

“I do,” Brin admitted.

“I wish that maybe we could be together,” Alec said quietly. I guess I might as well get right to the point. Like I said to Max and Becky earlier today, I can’t think of any other way to say this.

Brin blinked. He’d better mean what I think he means! Please, please, please! “Alec, I don’t know.”

“Okay, I shouldn’t have been so blunt,” Alec conceded.

“No, I like it that you went right out and said it,” Brin said. “I honestly do. I just—no, I—well, let’s just say that I’m a little tongue-tied.”

“I don’t blame you,” Alec said. He winced. “Damn, I didn’t want to sound so much like…myself.”

Brin laughed a little. “You are who you are. I like who you are.” She blushed. “I love who you are. I love you.”

Alec sat there for a moment. “Brin, I…I love you, too.”

“Are you sure?” Brin asked hopefully.

“Yes,” Alec said. “I’m sure. I love you.”

“Even after Rachel?” Brin asked. She remembered how devastated Alec had been when Rachel Beresford had died hours after he’d gone to see her.

“Yes,” Alec said. “I think I might have been starting to let go of her since I got thrown in Psy Ops. I wouldn’t have slept with you at all when they paired us up if I hadn’t been starting to let Rachel go subconsciously.”

“I remember that,” Brin recalled. “You didn’t sleep with me for the first three days that we were paired up. You gave me that lame line about wanting to get inside a woman’s mind first before you get inside her pants.” They both laughed. “I found that funny for some dumb reason.” She sighed. “I was partly relieved because you are Ben’s twin but I was also partly disappointed for some reason. I guess maybe I was falling for you then. I didn’t know it then, but when I think about it now, you know?”

“Yeah, I heard somebody say once that cats have a hard time seeing what’s right under their noses,” Alec agreed.

“What was weird was the day that Anthony was conceived, I felt warmer than normal all day during training and classes and I could see the guys looked like they wanted to jump me, but I didn’t want to jump them,” Brin said. “But the second you walked into my cell that night…”

“Oh, I remember that,” Alec said with a grin. “I don’t remember much after that before I woke up the next...when did we wake up?”

Brin punched him in the arm, also grinning. “A day-and-a-half later. We were so lucky that the guards were ordered not to interrupt pairs where the female was in heat if they went past the allotted time.” She looked thoughtful. “Does that technically make us mated? It’s not that I don’t want to be your mate, Alec, but I think that we have at least a little ways to go in our relationship before we get there, even though we kind of went ass-backwards to get to where we are now.”

“Yeah, we went straight for the sex and the kid part,” Alec joked. He looked serious. “I don’t think we are. I think even if we subconsciously were falling for each other then, we also knew deep down that we weren’t ready to be mated, even if you did hold out for me. We didn’t mark each other.”

“True,” Brin said. “So…what now?”

“We do what any couple with a baby who just got to sleep does,” Alec said.

“Enjoy the quiet and watch TV?” Brin said.

“Yeah,” Alec said. They both laughed. “There should be a boxing match on.”

“Awesome,” Brin said. “I always liked watching boxing.”

“I knew there was a reason that I love you,” Alec said.

TBC